Upholstered spring construction



March 1, 1938. G. R. BEATTY 2,109,764

UPHOLSTERED SPRING CONSTRUCTION Filed NOV` 26, 1934 @W f @f2/ff Patented Mar. 1, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Reynolds Spring Company, Jackson, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Application November 26, 1934, Serial No. 754,754

6 Claims.

This invention relates to upholstered spring constructions and more particularly to an arrangement for readily securing the springs and the lower edge of the upholstery on the sides of such constructions.

Attempts have been made to secure efficient and economical arrangements as above described and an example of such an attempt is illustrated by Letters Patent No. 1,387,160 granted to Wil- 10 liam D. McCullough et al. This invention is an improvement over the structure disclosed in the above patent. The improvements reside not only in a construction which may be fabricated more readily and economically due to simplified con- '15 struction permitting the ready access of tools and consequently saving in time and by the use of more simplified tools, but also in an arrangement permitting the upholstery on the sides to be secured on a level with the lowermost portions of the construction and in minimizing the overall height of the constructions.

An object of the present invention is to provide a base frame comprising an upholstery and spring securing strip in an upholstered spring construction by which the border springs may be rea-dily secured in position and by which the lower edge of the upholstery on the sides may be readily and eiciently secured.

Another object of the invention is to provide an upholstered spring construction in which the lower edge of the upholstery covering the sides is secured in such a manner as to permit a construction of minimum overall height.

A further object of the invention is to provide an arrangement for readily securing upholstery or other fabric to an object.

These and other objects will be apparent from the following specification when taken with the accompanying drawing in which- Fig. 1 is a plan view of a corner of the construction having a portion broken away to show details of the assembly of the upholstery and spring securing strip at the bottom,

Fig. 2 is a section taken on the line II-II of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of an upholstery securing ro-d, and

Fig. 4 is a section of a modified upholstery and spring Vsecuring strip showing the upholstery secured in position.

Referring to the drawing the spring construction comprises a plurality of vertical coil springs I maintained in a predetermined spaced relation having a cushion 2 resting on their tops and being enclosed at the sides with a skirt 3. The

tops of the coil springs I at the border are secured to a wire border frame l by clips '5 and inwardly are connected by crossed braces 6. The bottoms of the border coil springs I are secured to the upholstery and spring securing strip 'I -55 and inwardly are connected by the spacing strips 8. Relatively deep sheet metal spring supporting cross bars 9 constitute spreaders and add rigidity to the structure.

The structure described above with theexceplv10 tion of the upholstery and spring securing strip 'i constitutes the prior art, this invention residing in the construction of the upholstery and spring securing strip I and its association with the spring structure as a whole and in this case y1li particularly the cross bars 9, the spring I and the skirt 3.

The upholstery and spring securing strip 1 is roughly of a W-cross section having at the top and bottom channels Il! and II, respectively, {20 facing laterally in one direction and intermediate the channels It and II, a channel I2 facing laterally in the opposite direction. One wall of the channel I2 forms a wall of the channel I0 and the other wall of the channel I2 forms a wall v'25 of the channel I I. The strip I may be formed in any usual manner as by rolling.

The upper laterally facing channel I 0 is initially formed large enough to freely receive the lower edges of coil springs I and the turned up 30 ends I3 of the forks I4 extending from the bars 9.

As shown in Fig. 2 the border springs I rest on the bars 9 and snugly fit into the turned up ends I3. The border coil springs I` and the snugly fitted fork ends I3 are clamped in the channel I0 35 by closing in or crimping as shown at I5.

The laterally facing channel I I is formed with a restricted throat and which is sufficiently yieldable -to receive a plurality of relatively short skirt securing rods or the like II after the lower edge 40 of the skirt 3 has been laid in the channel II. The skirt securing rods I'I have a somewhat larger diameter than the width of the restricted throat IB with the skirt 3 covering the same so that when the rods I'! have been forced past the re- 45 stricted throat I6 into the bottom of the channel I I they are yieldably retained therein. It has been found that if the rods I'I are ma-de of suitable wire about one and one-half inches long and spaced about one half inch apart, a very satisfactory connection is obtained. In actual practice the skirt 3 i-s forced into the channel II by the rods Il so that only one operation is required to make the connection. The lower edge 55 of the channel II bend I8.

The channel I2 is made suiciently deep to provide walls of adequate depth for the channels I and II and to receive a backing tool during the operation forming the crimp indicated at I5.

A modied upholstery and spring securing strip 20 is illustrated in Fig. 4, showing a skirt 2| secured therein. The lower laterally facing channel 22 has provided at its lower edge, a roun-ded return bend 23 designed to prevent any possible cutting or injuring of the skirt 2 I. The rounded return bend 23 constitutes the only distinction over the strip 'I shown particularly in Fig. 2.

From the foregoing it will be evident that I have provided an upholstery and spring securing strip which not only eiiectively secures the border coil springs I and the lower edge of the skirt 3 but permits the securing of the same in a rapid and expeditious manner.

It is pointed out that as the invention resides in the base frame strip and its association with the remaining structure, I do not Wish to be limited to the details of the remaining structure but only by the scope of the following claims:

1. In an upholstered construction, a base frame comprising a channel member having two laterally and inwardly facing open channels one disposed above the o-ther, a vertically disposed web spacing said channels providing vertical stability, the lower one of said two channels having a restricted throat, cushion springs mounted in the upper one of said two channels, upholstery mounted on said springs, a skirt depending from said upholstery enclosing the sides of the construction, and means including said restricted throat yieldably securing the lower edge of said skirt in the lower one of said two channels.

2. In an upholstered spring construction, a plurality of cushion supporting springs, a cushion disposed thereon, a skirt depending from said cushion, a plurality of deep, spring supporting and frame stiftening bars disposed in a single plane and upon which said springs rest, a base frame, having an inwardly opening channel, surrounding said construction and receiving in said channel the springs on the border of the construction and the ends of said bars, having an inwardly facing channel depending from said rst named channel to the plane of the bottom of said deep bars for receiving the lower edge of said skirt whereby the same is maintained contiguous with the plane of the lower edges of said bars, and having a vertical stiiening web spacing said channels.

is iinished by the return 3. In an upholstered construction, a base frame comprising a channel member having two laterally and inwardly facing channels, one disposed above the other, a vertical rigidity providing portion spacing said channels, cushion springs clamped in the upper one of said two channels, upholstery mounted on said springs, and a skirt depending from said upholstery secured in said bottom channel.

4. A base frame for an upholstered construction comprising a W-shaped frame having two spaced laterally facing open channels, one disposed above the other facing in one direction and forming with a spacing web, a third open channel facing in the opposite direction, the upper one of said channels being arranged to have secured therein a coil of a spring and the lower one of -said channels being arranged to have secured therein a exible web of upholstering fabric.

5. In an upholstered construction, a base frame comprising an `upholstery anchoring portion, a vertically disposed stiiening web extending upwardly from said anchoring portion, an inwardly facing open channel integral with said stiiening web and spaced by said web from said anchoring portion, cushion springs clamped in said channel, upholstery mounted on said springs, and a skirt depending from said upholstery secured to said anchoring portion.

6. In an upholstered cushion spring construction, a top frame, a lower frame, springs spacing said frames, upholstery supported upon said springs and having a depending skirt, said lower frame dening a horizontally disposed channel of substantially circular cross-section through more than 180 and merging in a restricted throat l portion with an outwardly flared opening defined by upper and lower rounded edges, said lower rounded edge comprising a substantial bead the lower edge of said skirt being drawn about the outside of the circular portion of said channel and over said lower rounded edge and folded into the circular portion of said channel, a solid elongated rod of circular cross-section disposed within the fold of said skirt within the circular portion of said channel and rmly clamping the skirt against substantially the entire inner circular portion or" said channel, the diameter of said rod approximating the inner diameter of the circular portion oi said channel and of sufficient diameter to necessitate the enlargement of the restricted throat portion for the reception of said rod in said channel with said skirt disposed therein.

GEORGE R. BEA'I'I'Y. 

